


"You hurt the people you love, and you love the people you hurt."

by Mysenia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Tumblr Prompt, slightly dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-26 08:49:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3844678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysenia/pseuds/Mysenia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone pls write a Steter fic for the quote “what are you worth, the things you love or the people you hurt” - halereyes</p>
<p>~ Also posted on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"You hurt the people you love, and you love the people you hurt."

**Author's Note:**

> [halereyes' original post](http://halereyes.tumblr.com/post/117162449686/someone-pls-write-a-steter-fic-for-the-quote-what)

“What are you worth, the things you love or the people you hurt.” Stiles reads out loud to himself. This quote has never been more relevant to Stiles than in that moment, looking back at what his life has deteriorated into since the Nogitsune. It seemed that pain is what followed him where once joy would have been most prominent. Unsurprisingly the pack viewed Stiles differently, their actions speaking louder than the words that tried to reassure. 

Stiles tries to keep his head up, to continue on jovially - a facsimile of his former self. It does not work. His jokes fall short and his sarcasm rings more on the side of harsh truths than witty retorts. He loves his pack, would do anything to save them but it seems the more he tries the farther he distances himself from them. His hand touching them causes flinches and shudders, instant, unable to be masked. The closeness they once shared gone like a leaf in the wind.

Stiles stops trying so hard to be good, not becoming bad but accepting the wrongness to his nature that was left like a sticky residue when the void departed. It’s easier to get a reaction out of the pack with one well timed word, and he craves their attention. He knows it’s wrong to push at them the way he is and he knows they are running out of ideas of what to do with him. Some part of them still views him as pack, still loves him and needs his company, and Stiles can see their struggle to not fight their instincts. The instincts that tell them to pull him close and shelter him.

Scott will pull him into a hug, breathing in his scent, accidentally squeezing Stiles a might too hard when Scott clues in that it is Stiles that he’s hugging. Stiles can hear Lydia’s breath hitch when he answers his phone and he knows she meant to hit speed dial 3 not 2 but she won’t own up to it, asking how he is doing and actually conversing with him. Derek’s struggle is the most visual, his born wolf instincts pushing him harder to protect Stiles even after all the death and destruction he has caused. Derek is the one who will huff in frustration when Stiles is around, roughly pulling Stiles in to scent him before shoving Stiles away and shaking himself off. 

Stiles’ pack are the things he loves the most but they are also the people he hurts. It’s a double edged sword, a tightrope that he must tread carefully. 

It takes Stiles some time to see that he is not the only one walking that fine line. It takes a number of recurrences for Stiles to remember that he is not the only one who continuously hurts the people around him. It takes Stiles himself flinching back from Peter to realise that Peter is the one who has been going through this conflict for much longer. Though the pack may not be what Peter loves the most they are the first in line for the people he has hurt. Peter was leaving a trail of broken damaged people behind him long before Stiles, is in fact the one that dragged Stiles forcefully into the supernatural world by destroying his best friends life with the bite. 

Stiles takes to watching Peter, observing how and when he snaps at the pack. How Peter delights in it sometimes, and silently curses himself other times. Peter does not want to like the pack, never lets them forget how he would be much happier with his old pack still around, and continuously fights the instincts telling him to embrace the pack - even Stiles can see that. It fascinates Stiles that Peter would choose to hurt those that are instinct bred to love him, who are now more willing to accept Peter even before Stiles. 

If Peter’s worth was measured by the people he hurt or the things he loved, Stiles would bet it would be a pretty heavily favoured towards the people he has hurt. Stiles cannot even be sure if Peter loves anything anymore, unless that love is for pain and destruction. 

It does not take long for the kinship Stiles feels towards Peter to morph, changing from kinship to admiration to understanding to like to lust to love. Stiles still understands Peter, still feels a kinship to him, but it’s born from love now. All the wrong things about Peter draw Stiles in. He starts favouring Peter, treating him with respect and caring, and it pulls Peter’s attention. The pack don’t notice as they’ve taken to consciously ignoring Peter and Stiles when the two are conversing, from fear or denial Stiles could not say.

Peter isn’t weary of Stiles, has never underestimated Stiles capabilities, and accepts Stiles advances with a raised brow and a sardonic tilt to his mouth. Perhaps Peter does not love - yet - but Stiles knows he hurts and some part of Stiles wants to be hurt. It’s the part of him that hurts others and he cannot deny it. Peter and Stiles’ relationship is a miasmic well of hurt, pushing and pulling against each other, each trying to come out on top. It eases the feelings in Stiles, the feelings of doubt and neediness. 

The pack do not understand but Stiles and Peter do not ask them to. It hurts the pack that they have found happiness together but they are happy that Stiles and Peter have found happiness together, it’s a sick and twisted knife digging its way deeper. Their relationship eases into love, the hurt gradually becoming less of a need, comfort coming in small gestures. Stiles finally finds his happiness.  
Stiles stumbles across the quote about a year after he and Peter have been together and he reads it aloud to Peter.

“What are you worth, the things you love or the people you hurt.” 

They are both silent a moment, each taking in their own understanding of it. Weighing what it means to them. Eventually Peter simply replies with,

“You hurt the people you love, and you love the people you hurt.”

**Author's Note:**

> I rated it T because it's a slightly darker themed story, or at least the underlying theme is. 
> 
> Hope you like it!  
> ~ M


End file.
